There are, today, bottle adapters that are used for children's medications and allows a bottle to be accessed by a syringe so that the caregiver can administer that dosage of the medicine to the child. Basically, the adapter is located at the top of the bottle neck to create a syringe accessibility to that bottle. They are pressed into the open top of the bottle to make assembly relatively cost effective and have a central opening through which a dispenser or syringe can be inserted to reach and withdraw the medicine from the bottle.
With the present adapters, however, there are some problems, in that children can bypass the adapter and access the content of the bottle, either by effecting some bypass method or by the removal of the adapter in its entirety. It is estimated that about 180,000 children each year are seen for medication overdoses and the main issue in such overdoses is the unsupervised ingestion of the medicine.
For example, one issue with existing adapters is that the central opening can be used by a child to access the medicine by inverting the bottle and shaking, sucking or otherwise manipulating the bottle to access the medicine. There is, also the possibility that the bottle may be overturned, either deliberately or inadvertently, and the contents leak out of that central opening.
Another problem with the present adapters, is that there is an upper flange that sits atop the upper edge of the neck of the bottle such that a child, or other person can insert a tool, fingernail, or even teeth to pry the adapter out of the bottle neck and thus expose the medicine to a child.
It would therefore be advantageous to have an improved bottle adapted that can be pressed into the bottle and which provides enhanced protection against access to the content of the bottle by persons, such as children.